His plans were approved, and he was appointed commander to
carry them into execution.
18. "The young captain," says Macaulay, "was put at the head of two
hundred English soldiers and three hundred sepoys, armed and
disciplined after the English fashion. The weather was stormy, but
Clive pushed on through thunder, lightning, and rain, to the gates of
Arcot. The garrison in a panic evacuated the fort and the English
entered it without a blow. Clive immediately began to collect
provisions, to throw up works, and make preparations for sustaining a
siege. The garrison, which had fled at his approach, had now recovered
from its dismay, and, re-enforced to the number of three thousand men,
it encamped close to the town. At dead of night Clive marched out of
the fort, attacked the camp by surprise, slew great numbers, dispersed
the rest, and returned to his quarters without having lost a single
man.
19. "The news of the fall of Arcot soon reached Chunda Sahib, as he
was besieging Trichinopoly. An army under the command of his son Rajah
Sahib, numbering ten thousand native troops and one hundred and fifty
Frenchmen, was immediately dispatched to Arcot, and proceeded to
invest the fort, which seemed quite incapable of sustaining a siege.
The walls were ruinous and the ditches dry. The garrison, reduced by
casualties, now consisted of one hundred and fifty English soldiers
and two hundred sepoys.
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